In another blow to Google’s plan to create a giant digital library and bookstore, the Justice Department on Thursday said that a class-action settlement between the company and groups representing authors and publishers had significant legal problems, even after recent revisions.In a 31-page filing that could influence a federal judge’s ruling on the settlement, the department said the new agreement was much improved from an earlier version. But it said the changes were not enough to placate concerns that the deal would grant Google a monopoly over millions of orphan works, meaning books whose right holders are unknown or cannot be found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/technology/internet/05publish.htmlAlso see:DOJ: Thumbs down again to Google book search settlement [IDG]
In a big blow to Google’s efforts to build a massive digital-books marketplace and library, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has come out against the revised agreement to settle copyright lawsuits brought against Google by authors and publishers.Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) had hoped that by revising their original settlement agreement they would satisfy the concerns raised by the DOJ in September 2009 and be able to legitimize Google’s book-scanning program.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9152498/DOJ_Thumbs_down_again_to_Google_book_search_settlement